Archive
Besides his books, Bill has written a variety of poems, short stories, opinion pieces, and more.
The Morrisville 4th of July Parade
Pud and Ginger Leland bought the lot next to Union Carbide and built a modern prefab ranch house, the first of its kind in Morrisville. Later, the most popular model...
An Insular Nation
We are outside security. Through thick glass, we watch our son hoist his backpack onto the x-ray machine and wait to be summoned by a uniformed TSA agent through the...
Where’s the Plan?
There is a “term of art” called the economic development toolbox.” In a “tad da” designed to delight Vermonters weary of plentiful $9.00 per hour jobs, rising fuel and health...
Homage aux soeurs
While visiting Québec City last week for the Fêtes de la nouvelle France, we were wandering through Place Royale surrounded by early Québec re-enactors in period pantaloons, rough linen shirts...
Who Should Lead?
What should we look for when we choose a leader? The very person in your small town who really wants to be the cop is probably the one individual you...
The Consuming Society
We are often called the “consumer society.” The term has mixed meaning. All societies are in fact consumer societies. An Afghan tribal village consumes, as do people in Williston. The...
Vermont’s 2500 Non-profits
Vermont has over 2500 non-profit organizations. They are either mission-driven or overhead-driven. They are focused either on achieving their stated mission or on their survival. There is a great deal...
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Dialer
Why can’t we communicate? Too much communication. How do you feel while talking with someone who’s reading emails? We’re in the Metropolitan Opera to hear Renée Fleming in La Traviata....
Death and Taxes
I am going to talk about everyone’s least favorite subject, not death, the other one. At its best, taxation is how a citizenry funds the services it feels are be...
Taxation
I am going to talk about everyone’s least favorite subject, not death, the other one. At its best, taxation is how a citizenry funds the services it feels are be...
Loyalty or Competence?
First it was Rumsfeld, then Bolton, then Wolfowitz, Karl Rove and now Gonzalez. If there’s a constructive lesson to be found in all of this, I think it has to...
Schadenfreude
Indulge me. Although my patient wife and editor exhorts me not to use arcane words, but to write in simple declarative English sentences, I am going to declare a holiday...
